Discovering urban infrastructure through culture in Bochum, Germany

Rundlauf Bochum is a five-days-festival which is held the 4th time in Bochum. Nearly 80 artists, musicians, dancers, performers and actors are invited to act and intervene in urban areas. The focus lies on a specific district in the city which is not much noticed by the public.

“Speckschweiz” – the nickname of the district describes the formerly rich neighbourhood – is located near the city centre but marked by empty and not-used places such as shops, bars, apartments, squares and parks that are the locations of this years’ festival. The highlight is a big Nazi-bunker, where the organisation team and a lot of helpers worked since February to clean it from rubbish and dirt of the last decades. Artists, friends and neighbours participated in the project and helped to get the festival organised. In this way inhabitants design their daily environment in a new way and use a present but forgotten infrastructure.

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Photos by Thorsten Schnorrbusch

After the opening on Tuesday evening with theatre, dance and concerts the exhibition opened on Wednesday and is on view until 5th of May. Hundreds of people were in the streets, enjoyed the public concerts and performances, explored the exhibitions or just followed the pink coloured arrows to get drifted to unseen places like a small basement or a private garden. For example Melanie Sapina presents her work in a yoga school. She shows photographs of her fathers archive which he produced during the time he worked as a guest worker in the Ruhr Area in the 1970s.

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